LIVERMORE FALLS – After voters in last week’s budget referendum overwhelmingly approved SAD 36’s nearly $8.7 million budget, Superintendent Terry Despres said Monday he’s thankful to taxpayers.
“I need to thank the two communities and all my staff,” Depres said.
Although the district’s 2006-2007 budget increased nearly 1.3 percent over last year’s, Despres said, the increase was small enough to actually drop the tax rate “by over a mill.”
“We’ve been working hard to try to stay close to (state funding standards) and have been managing to do it so far,” he said. The district exceeds the state’s essential programs and services funding model by more than $2,000, he said.
SAD 36 directors added a full-day kindergarten, a program for 4-year-olds, and a treatment program for children with special needs “servicing not only our district but three other districts,” he said.
Despres said he and the school board managed that by “making sure the money stays in the classroom.”
“We cut administrative costs and shared employees with other districts. We share a food service director,” Despres said.
The biggest increase this year came in fuel costs. This year that cost went up by $200,000, Despres said.
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